{"id":7767,"date":"2010-11-17T08:45:26","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T23:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=7767"},"modified":"2010-11-17T10:09:51","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T01:09:51","slug":"eurobizs-tony-mcnicol-on-the-future-abolition-of-the-gaijin-tax-re-entry-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=7767","title":{"rendered":"Eurobiz Magazine’s Tony McNicol on the future abolition of the “Gaijin Tax” Re-Entry Permits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Handbook<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"Foreign<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"JAPANESE<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS now on iTunes, subscribe free<\/p>\n

Hi Blog.\u00a0 Eurobiz Magazine a couple of months ago ran an article talking inter alia<\/em> about something I’ve called the “Gaijin Tax” for more than a decade now — the Re-Entry Permit system.\u00a0 Thought of by some as a way of punishing the Zainichi Koreans etc. for staying behind in Japan (given all the incentives for them to leave after being stripped of colonial Japanese citizenship, moreover registered as foreigners in the late 1940’s), the Re-Entry Permit actually is a tax with a profit motive — even the lecturer cited by Tony McNicol below states this openly about its proposed abolition:<\/p>\n

Without re-entry permit income, currently \u00a56,000 for multiple re-entry, the changes are likely to lighten the government\u2019s coffers. \u201cThis is a huge reduction in our revenue,\u201d said Matsuno. \u201cThe Ministry of Finance is angry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What a piece of work our government can be.\u00a0 Charging for visas for foreigners and passports for nationals is one thing (and I just paid 16,000 yen for a new ten-year Japanese passport; ouch).\u00a0 But charging foreigners for their addiction to going “home” (or for even daring to leave Japan) with their visa held hostage, well, that’s just as I’ve suspected all along — a mean-spirited means to sponge off the NJ population.\u00a0 Good riddance to it.\u00a0 Arudou Debito<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Eurobiz Magazine August 2010
\nYour new alien registration card
\nChanges under the new Japanese immigration system<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.eurobiz.jp\/content\/2010\/august\/columns\/event-report<\/a>
\nBy TONY MCNICOL, courtesy of the author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Applying and paying for a re-entry permit has long been an unavoidable nuisance for foreign businesspeople traveling out of Japan. But during a recent EBC organised event at the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation it was announced that the \u201cgaijin tax\u201d will soon be no more. It was just one of a raft of changes to the law explained to attendees by Hiroaki Matsuno, a deputy director at the Ministry of Justice.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The government plans to bring the revised regulations into force by July 2012 at the latest, and the Ministry of Justice is already busy at work on the details. Matsuno, who took up his current post a few months ago, has been working till midnight almost every day, he said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The biggest change is that, rather than two tiers \u2013 immigration bureau for visas and local ward or city office for alien registration cards \u2013 everything will now be handled by the Ministry of Justice. For the first time, mid- to long-term foreign residents will come under the juminhyo (residence registry) system; good news for legal foreigners, but bad news for illegals who will not be able to receive the replacement for the current alien registration card \u2013 or services such as government healthcare.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In principle the new \u201cresidence card\u201d, which will basically replace the \u201cstatus of residence\u201d stamp in passports, will be issued at the airport at the time of landing. \u201cBut we can\u2019t afford to place machines at all of Japan\u2019s airports,\u201d stressed Matsuno. (Japan currently has over 80 airports). For those arriving in the boondocks, the card will be sent by post.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For some changes to details on the card, say a change in employer, reporting to the immigration bureau will be required by law. The ministry is investigating the use of proxies, said Matsuno, but has not yet made a decision. The ministry is also considering allowing notification by post or through the internet.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hopefully, the changes will reduce work for the immigration bureau and shorten queues in their offices (a relief for those who have run the gauntlet of the Shinagawa bureau). \u201cWe have been very sorry to keep people waiting,\u201d said Matsuno. Most visa categories will be extended from three to five years, and the residence card will expire after the same period. There will also be a change in the re-entry permit. Mid- to long-term foreign residents will now be exempt from needing a re-entry permit as long as they re-enter Japan within 12 months. (The re-entry permit system will remain for other cases.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Without re-entry permit income, currently \u00a56,000 for multiple re-entry, the changes are likely to lighten the government\u2019s coffers. \u201cThis is a huge reduction in our revenue,\u201d said Matsuno. \u201cThe Ministry of Finance is angry.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest of the article at
\nhttp:\/\/www.eurobiz.jp\/content\/2010\/august\/columns\/event-report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eurobiz Magazine a couple of months ago ran an article talking inter alia about something I’ve called the “Gaijin Tax” for more than a decade now — the Re-Entry Permit system. Thought of by some as a way of punishing the Zainichi Koreans etc. for staying behind in Japan (given all the incentives for them to leave after being stripped of colonial Japanese citizenship, moreover registered as foreigners in the late 1940’s), the Re-Entry Permit actually is a tax with a profit motive — even the lecturer cited by Tony McNicol below states this openly about its proposed abolition:<\/p>\n

Without re-entry permit income, currently \u00a56,000 for multiple re-entry, the changes are likely to lighten the government\u2019s coffers. \u201cThis is a huge reduction in our revenue,\u201d said Matsuno. \u201cThe Ministry of Finance is angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

What a piece of work our government can be. Charging for visas for foreigners and passports for nationals is one thing (and I just paid 16,000 yen for a new ten-year Japanese passport; ouch). But charging foreigners for their addiction to going “home” (or for even daring to leave Japan) with their visa held hostage, well, that’s just as I’ve suspected all along — a mean-spirited means to sponge off the NJ population. Good riddance to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,35,4,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-business-practices","category-good-news","category-japanese-government","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}